First Church chimes in with a new sound

HOLDEN – Small New England towns are famed for their pristine white churches sitting close by town commons, with towering spires housing bells that toll the hour in tones mellowed by age.

To this traditional scene, the First Congregational Church of Holden has added a new note. A lot of notes, in fact.

As part of the church’s 275th anniversary celebration, members raised $13,000 to install a digital carillon system that plays seasonal hymns and songs at noon and 6 p.m.

The Reverend John Barber, pastor of First Congregational, is delighted with the new musical addition.

“It adds a certain old-school Americana to the center of town,” he said. “I want it to be a blessing, not a curse. I’ve checked with a few neighbors, especially ones close by and said ‘I hope it’s not too loud or obnoxious or anything.’ I’ve been amazed how positive the feedback has been. ”

With Music Director Chuck Noyes and Choir Head Andy Champagne, Barber demonstrated how the new Chime Master, the name of the digital carillon system, works to pipe music inside or outside the church.

Two boxes about the size of VCRs are stationed next to the console of the church’s historic pipe organ, refurbished four years ago. The Chime Master can play about 2000 melodies both sacred and secular, but Barber has winnowed the play list down to what he called the“greatest hits”.

“When we first got it, it was playing hymns that I didn’t even recognize, so I put together a list of about 25 to 30 hymns that everyone knows like ‘Amazing Grace’ and “How Great Thou Art,” he said.

At one time, the church organist was able to switch on a set of chimes that had a range of an octave and a half with speakers mounted in the steeple. The chimes got so they worked only intermittently and eventually, not at all, said Barber. The Chime Master plays automatically through the organ console and can even be activated remotely by a smart phone application. As before, the speakers are mounted in the steeple. The speakers that were removed were so old they looked like the ones seen during announcements on the television show “MASH set in the 1950’s,” Barber said.

A wonderful aspect of the new chime installation was that integrating the new system didn’t require any physical re-make of the organ or its pipes. When the new console was installed, they had a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) wired in.”

“It’s plug and pray,” said Champagne. “You know it’s going to work.

The chime system was dedicated on the Sunday after Easter, just a week after it was originally planned. There was a little trouble working around the cell phone towers – Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint – that share space with the bell in the spire. The speakers were due to go by the Sprint tower and the installer said it needed to go offline for a while.

“It took him close to an hour just to find the right person to talk to,” said Barber. Then there was a wait until phone traffic could be routed to another tower.

At the same time, it was discovered that the housing for the church’s historic 1875 bell is broken. An iron yoke suspends the bell on a rocker and some of the bolts are coming undone, Barber explained.

“So we have to stop ringing it until we can get it fixed,” he said. “It’s going to be disappointing for the third graders who come through to ring the bell on their field trip to center of town. They grab the rope and I always help them. It lifts them right off the ground; that’s how heavy the bell is.”

Luckily, the Chime Master can help out with part of that problem. It now sounds the hours instead of the old bell, using a traditional Westminster chime, said Champagne.

In addition to melodies and bell chimes, the Chime Master can play bugle calls like “Taps” for military ceremonies or patriotic tunes that Barber is looking forward to trying out for Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. He is also excited about carols during the Christmas season, thinking they may play them up to three times a day.

He reflected on the effect the music could have.

“It’s my prayer that the songs encourage the faithful, perhaps call those who have drifted and just let the town know that the church is still alive,” Barber said.